A large number of service providers (e.g., Earthlink, Yahoo, T-Mobile, Vonage, etc.) and/or equipment providers with technical support organizations (e.g., Linksys, etc.) (“providers”) need accessibility and visibility to the current status of a residential gateway or router (“Gateway”) for the purposes of management and/or maintenance, which may include diagnostics and troubleshooting.
However, these service providers and technical support organizations are not the broadband access providers (e.g., Comcast, SBC, etc.) and therefore do not inherently have awareness of the currently assigned IP address of the Gateway. Furthermore, the IP address is typically dynamic (e.g., administered by DHCP or PPP) and will change over time leading to even more difficulty for the provider.
In addition, security typically necessitates a separate password be used for remote access than is used for local access to the Gateway. As a result, a provider will also require such a password in addition to the IP address of the Gateway.
Thus, a means and method to enable the provider to learn either the IP address or a resolvable name (pre-assigned) of the Gateway and/or a password to access the Gateway is highly desirable.
Embodiments of the present invention and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures.